He leaned back against the counter. As he thought, I glanced over to the stove to see a Dutch oven on the top. Noah was making corned beef and potatoes and the smell was enough to make my mouth water.
“Pa’s as crotchety as they come – at least when you first meet him. He’s an old Irish country doctor, the sort who seems prickly on the outside but is soft as can be once you get to know him. Ma’s a sweetheart, through and through, the sort of woman who always wants to know how well you’ve been eating. And she’s as smart as they come, too? a professor of Biology at Dublin City College; though long-retired.”
“Wow, a doctor and a professor. Between them and you, these are going to be some smart kids .”
“And you, Sadie,” he said. “You’re whip-smart – don’t even think of selling yourself short on that score.”
I blushed. I couldn’t help it – that was my reaction whenever Noah said anything like that to me. As far as I could remember, he was the only man I’d been involved with who could lay a compliment on me and not make me roll my eyes at the corniness of it.
Then again, we weren’t exactly involved.
My phone buzzed in my hand – a text from Mom letting me know they were only a few minutes away.
“OK, they’re almost here,” I said, my heart beating faster and my stomach tightening into a small knot. “Are you ready? I’m ready. I mean, I think I’m ready. I don’t know.”
Without missing a beat, Noah stepped around the kitchen island, faced me, and put his hands on my shoulders.
“You’re ready. And what’s more,we’reready. Just breathe.”
God, with just a few words and a gaze from those gorgeous green eyes, he was more effective at mellowing me out than two hours of hot yoga.
It wasn’t long before another text arrived, this one also from Mom.
They were here.
“OK, OK, OK,” I said. “They just pulled up out front.”
Noah, calm and smooth as ever, placed his hand on the small of my back and led me toward the front door.
“Then let’s greet them, yeah?”
His touch felt so good. It didn’t matter that, as a co-parent and not a lover, he probably shouldn’t have been touching me like that. I didn’t care.
Together, we made our way to the front door. Through the side windows, I could see Mom and Dad’s Subaru parked out front, my parents making their way across the front lawn.
Something new was about to begin. And with Noah at my side, I was no longer afraid.